Breathing Room
by EldritchSandwich
Summary: Change of Heart Series 4. A new arrival makes things hard for Jeremie, and Xana gets tired of being subtle…


"So, what do you think we should do over the break?" Odd said through a mouthful of eggs.

Yumi shook her head in amazement. "Odd, we've still got a week of school left."

Ulrich set his tray on the table, smiling and gently squeezing Yumi's hand as he arrived from the breakfast line. "What are we talking about?"

"Odd was planning ahead," Sissi grinned, taking a long, leisurely sip of her orange juice, "apparently he doesn't care that before we can get to the break, we have a math exam to get through."

"See?" Yumi retorted, "That's why I love my classes. All I have is a history paper that I finished a week ago."

Jeremie lifted his head from his plate and leaned back in his chair, smiling.

Ulrich turned. "Jeremie? What is it?"

"Do you realize what's happening here?" Jeremie asked, grinning, "We're talking about school. Like normal people. We're not talking about saving the world, or when our favorite supercomputer is going to rear his ugly head again."

Odd chuckled. "Yeah...it's kind of refreshing..."

Sissi broke the ensuing silence. "Of course, now that you brought it up, I can't stop thinking about Lyoko."

Ulrich sighed. "Me neither. Thanks a lot, Jeremie."

Jeremie shrugged. "Well, maybe it's better we do think about it. I mean, Xana is overdue for an attack. Anyway, I have to get going. I have to meet with the Principal."

"Duh-duh-DUN!" Odd intoned. Yumi slapped him in the arm. "What does he want?"

"I don't know. I just hope he didn't find out about the lab somehow."

"Maybe he found out you cheated on those genius tests," Ulrich chuckled.

Jeremie smiled, turning to walk the long, exposed corridor that led to the Principal's office. As he slit open the door, Sissi's father looked up from a neat pile of papers. "Ah, Jeremie. Please sit down."

Jeremie sat, fidgiting nervously in the overlarge chair the Principal used for visitors. "What's wrong, sir?"

"Oh, don't worry, Jeremie, nothing's wrong, you're not in trouble. How long have you boarded here at Kadic? Three years?"

"Yes, sir."

"Always had that dorm room to yourself, haven't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, I hope it won't be too much trouble for you to adapt."

"Sir?"

The Principal smiled, planting a large rubber stamp on the topmost paper in the pile. "You're getting a roommate."

"A roommate?" Ulrich paced restlessly in front of the covered door to the school building. "This is terrible."

"Yeah," Odd chuckled, "with your luck, you'll get someone who snores!" Yumi slapped him on the arm.

"Don't you get it, Odd?" Sissi added, "If Jeremie isn't alone in his room anymore, then it's going to be much harder to communicate with Aelita."

"Plus, where are we going to have our meetings?" Ulrich spat, continuing to pace, "Our room's too small, and besides it wouldn't be practical to talk to Aelita through a laptop, especially since we'd be cut off from the internet, so all Jeremie's early warning software would be useless."

"Okay, you're right," Odd admitted, "this is serious. But there's not really a whole lot we can do about it."

"Well, anyway, I'm going to go and lock out Aelita's interface program before the new guy gets-"

"Hey!" An unfamiliar voice shouted from across the courtyard. A boy, probably the new ninth grader Jeremie was to share his room with, darted over. "Hi. I'm Mike. You must be Jeremie, right? The Principal sent me over to talk to you."

The group looked this newcomer over. He seemed harmless enough—chocolate skin, large, dark eyes, baggy jeans. Ulrich spoke first.

"Hi, Mike, I'm Ulrich. This is Odd, Yumi, and Sissi."

Mike noticed Yumi's hand around Ulrich's waist. "So, are you two together, or what?"

Blushing, Yumi dropped her hand. Ulrich shot her a reassuring glance. "Well, uh..." he stammered, "...yeah. I guess we are."

Mike turned his gaze to Odd and Sissi. "And you two?"

Odd stifled a snorting laugh.

Sissi looked up, indignant. She imitated the sound. "Huurp? What's 'huurp' supposed to mean?"

Odd blushed. "Oh, come on, Sissi, it didn't mean anything."

"Yeah, whatever. I have to get to class." Sissi began to walk off. Odd trailed after her.

"Sissi, wait. Come on, it was just a joke!"

Ulrich shook his head. "What's with those two lately?"

Jeremie sighed. "Oh, who knows. Come on, Mike, I guess I'll show you to our room."

"Cool," Mike said, following Jeremie toward the dormatories, "it was nice to meet all of you."

"Sissi, wait!" Odd's voice trailed off from across the broad cobbled courtyard. "You know I respect you as a friend..."

"I'm just saying—I think they deserve to know," Ulrich defended as he and Yumi walked through Kadic's tree-shrouded park, "I mean, we told Odd, Jeremie, and even Sissi."

Yumi stopped, turning around and planting her back against the trunk of a tree. "But Odd, Jeremie and Sissi had time to adjust. They saw the way we were acting—they practically figured it out before we did."

Ulrich stepped up to the tree, taking Yumi's hands gently in his. "Yumi, they're our parents. We have to tell them sometime. It's not like we're getting married—we're 'expanding our social interactions.' They'll understand." Yumi avoided Ulrich's gaze. Ulrich sighed. "Of course...they're not what's bugging you, are they? Come on, Yumi, out with it. We spent the last two years lying to each other."

"If we tell our parents, then it means..." Yumi shook her head, "...it means you're my boyfriend, and I'm your girlfriend, and that's an awful lot of pressure. Especially when we have to worry about Ly-"

"Yumi," Ulrich interrupted, brushing his lips quietly against hers, "it's going to be fine."

A faint smile flashing across her lips, Yumi pushed them against Ulrich's, her anxiety melting away. They smiled.

"Come on," Ulrich whispered reassuringly, taking hold of Yumi's hand and guiding her back toward the path, "we have to go see how Jeremie's doing. Moving day can be pretty stressful."

Ulrich didn't know the half of it. Aside from rearranging furniture and comparing rather disparate tastes in decor, Jeremie had already had to explain why his computer was calling his name. Had Mike known more about computers, he would have seen Jeremie's hasty excuse about "testing a new two-way communication program" for what it was. Luckily, the boy seemed more interested in music than Jeremie's scrambling to turn off his monitor as Aelita's face flashed over the screen.

"So, roomie," Mike began, fluffing his pillows authoritatively, "where's the bathroom around here?"

Jeremie breathed a sigh of relief. "Just go down to the end of the hall and turn left."

"Cool. Thanks." As Mike exited, Yumi, Ulrich and Sissi brushed by him. Yumi smiled.

"Hey, Jeremie. How's the moving going?"

Jeremie flopped down on his bed with a shuddering sigh. "Don't get me started. Aelita already tried to contact me once. I don't know what we're going to do if there's an attack. Where's Odd?"

Ulrich shrugged. Sissi spoke up. "He's down at the vending machines. A bag of potato chips is probably his idea of a housewarming gift."

Yumi chuckled. "Still angry at him, huh?"

"Well, I realize I'm not everyone's type, but he didn't have to be quite so rude. I mean, I'm a good catch...right?"

Ulrich cleared his throat. "Well, I'm spoken for, but I'm sure Jeremie here would be willing to answer your question. Come on, Jeremie, who's the better catch...Yumi or Sissi?"

Jeremie turned around to face the computer, beginning to boot it back up. "I refuse to answer that on the grounds that either way the other one would beat me up." Yumi stifled a giggle.

Sissi tilted her head. "Well, he's not wrong!"

"Besides, if you'll remember, I'm currently engaged in a long distance relationship. Speaking of which..." Jeremie activated the program he had been forced to shut down a few minutes ago, "Aelita? Are you there?"

Her pink-wreathed face melted onto the screen. "I'm here, Jeremie."

"Sorry about cutting you off before. I've got this new roommate, and I don't exactly want word of Lyoko to get around. Is anything wrong?"

"Not at the moment. I just wanted to check in."

"Hey, Aelita!" Odd added from the doorway, a half-eaten bag of cheese curls in one hand. "I just passed your new roommate in the hall, Jeremie, and we got to talking. Nice guy—good taste in music."

Ulrich looked around what was now Mike's wall at the posters for absolutely horrid bands. "Well, if great minds think alike, I guess the opposite is also true..."

Ulrich and Odd joined the rest of their friends already at the cafeteria table. Ulrich slid in next to Yumi. Odd didn't dare slide in next to Sissi.

"all right, Jeremie, what's this about?" Ulrich groaned, "I have some serious English homework to finish."

"Right." Jeremie pulled a thin red folder from his backpack. "Since we can't talk about Lyoko as easily with Mike around, I've developed a system of codes for different Xana-related occurences. For instance, 'I'm having problems at home' means 'I saw or heard about a suspicious event and need a scan made on Lyoko right away'. Those people 'going to town' are going to Lyoko, and those 'staying home' are staying here to keep an eye on things. A 'Code Red', of course, is-"

"Jeremie!" Odd snapped, looking at the stapled packet of papers that had been passed to him, "How many pages of this stuff are there?"

"Well...just four. Double-sided."

Sissi's eyes bulged. "Eight pages? How do you expect us to memorize all this? I can't even remember the dates in my history book."

"I just...I think we should face the fact that we can't keep talking about Lyoko in public. People will think we're crazy."

Yumi shook her head. "That's not it. We don't need codes; in a crisis situation, no one else will remember what we said anyway. I think you're just trying to keep your mind off your real problems. I take it things aren't going to well with Mike?"

Jeremie shuddered. "It's awful. He's a slob, and he plays his music all day long. I can't even study any more. Not to mention..."

Odd giggled. "He does snore, doesn't he?"

"I've been thinking of asking to borrow Ulrich's earplugs."

Yumi shrugged. "Well, nothing you can do about it now." The girl glanced at her watch. "Whoops. I'm late for my next class."

Ulrich followed her up. "I'll walk you."

Jeremie stood up, shouldering his backpack and tucking the folder under his arm. "I'm going to the library. I need some peace and quiet to talk to Aelita."

Odd glanced sidelong at Sissi. "Well, guess it's just you and me now."

Sissi lifted herself up from the table, straightening the forced creases in her dress. "Actually, I should really finish my Physics homework."

"Sissi, wait..." Odd jumped up from the table a bit more quickly than he'd intended, "you're not still mad at me, are you? About this morning?"

Sissi rolled her eyes. "No. Not really."

"Good. I didn't mean...it was just..."

Sissi smiled. "I know. You were just trying to mask your wild, passionate attraction to me. Story of my life." Odd shook his head as Sissi walked off, head held habitually high.

Odd was so preoccupied, in fact, that he didn't see the familiar red eye that flashed across the screen of his pocketed cell phone.

"Yumi, be reasonable," Ulrich said, trailing after her as she walked down the covered hallway between school buildings. The girl spun around to face him.

"I am being reasonable, Ulrich. You're the one who keeps pushing this." As she spun around, Ulrich hurried to keep up with her.

"I keep pushing it because it's important!"

"I already told you, if we tell them, then it means we're...a couple."

Ulrich grabbed Yumi's shoulder lightly, spinning her around to face him. "That's the point. I'm tired of having this same stupid fight."

"Well then, why don't you just go back to Emily? I'm sure she'd love to-"

"Oh, come on, Yumi, don't try to bring Emily into this, just because you're insecure about us."

"I'm insecure?"

"So I'm wrong? Maybe you're just ashamed of me. Can't be seen with a younger man."

Yumi shook her head, turning on her heel and flipping out her cell phone. "Forget it. I can walk myself to class. If you'll excuse me, I have to call Odd. Maybe he-"

Since Yumi's back was turned, Ulrich didn't see the eye flash across the screen of the cell phone. He did see Yumi as she went rigid, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end as the current from the possessed battery ripped through her body. As she turned around, she thought she might have seen Ulrich shouting her name, but by the time that thought had registered, she had already slipped into blackness.

After Ulrich had carried the taller girl to the infirmary, he ran off to find Jeremie. He didn't dare call him—there was no way that what happened to Yumi was a coincidence. Ulrich found Jeremie and Odd in the library, talking to Aelita. Ignoring Jim's yelps for quiet, Ulrich hurriedly explained what had happened, and Aelita began the search for an activated Tower. As they ran toward the infirmary, Jeremie stopped, eyes wide.

"Oh, no—I told Sissi to call me when she was finished with her homework."

Wordlessly, Odd rushed off toward the dorms while Ulrich and Jeremie continued to the infirmary to check on Yumi's condition. As they entered the room, Dorothy saw them and shook her head sadly.

"I'm sorry, but it's very bad. I've called for the ambulance."

Taking the stairs three at a time, Odd rushed toward Sissi's room. As he opened the door, Odd saw Sissi closing one of her books. She turned, slightly annoyedat his intrusion.

"Odd, didn't anyone ever teach you to knock? Hold on a second, I have to call Jeremie."

As Sissi pulled out her mobile phone, time seemed to stop for Odd. As she pressed the 'on' button, Odd leapt forward, grabbing the phone and feeling the electrical twinge as the entire battery discharged directly into the palm of his hand.

Sissi didn't truly know what had happened—but as Odd rolled away, sparking seizures wracking his body, she had a pretty good idea. Calling out for help, Sissi checked for a pulse. Odd was alive, but barely. As students began to gather around her door, Sissi cradled the head of someone she never knew would have given his life for hers.

As Jeremie and Ulrich set the second of their friends down on an infirmary bed, Sissi crouched outside the door, skin tightened with shock, head filled with a million questions.

As Ulrich made sure his best friends were still breathing, Jeremie crept out of the room to find a dejected Sissi at his feet. "Hey, are you all right?"

Sissi stared up, recognizing Jeremie through the melancholic haze spreading through her body. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

Jeremie cocked his head, eyebrows wrinkling together as he examined the ever-proud girl in a heap on the floor. "Are you sure?"

Sissi pushed herself off the cold stability of brick, teetering in the open air a moment before regaining her usual confidence. "I'm OK. It's just—why'd he do that? It would have been better if it had happened to me—Odd would be of more use in Lyoko."

"Logic has nothing to do with the way Odd does things, you know that. Anyway, speaking of Lyoko," Jeremie returned his attention to the small, white-walled infirmary, "Ulrich, we have to go."

Ulrich lifted his head, tears frozen on his face, as if he dared them to move any further down and disrupt Yumi's perceived serenity. "No."

"Ulrich, be reasonable. The only way to help them is to go to Lyoko."

The taller boy lifted himself from over Yumi's still silhouette. "Jeremie, don't ask me to do this. Not this time. I have to stay with them," Ulrich paused, the last of his tears finally rolling down his cheeks, "I have to stay with her."

Jeremie sighed, shaking his head. "Sissi—do you feel up to a solo mission?"

Sissi smiled as much as she could. "Let's go."

As Jeremie seated himself in the lab's control chair, Sissi stepped into a vacant scanner.

"Transfer—Sissi. Scanner—Sissi. Virtualization."

"Yumi?" Ulrich breathed, afraid to disturb her fragile condition. "I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm sorry. It's just, I waited for you for so long. I thought—I thought things would be different, you know? Like once we realized what we meant to each other, everyone else would accept it too."

Sissi jumped in front of a Crab's laser blast, slamming into the trunk of one of the Forest Region's numerous trees. Aelita screamed as another bolt exploded at her feet, driving her behind the cover of a nearby rock. Sissi flipped out, shuriken in hand, taking the first Crab by surprise. The second caught her across the shoulder, the electric force of the laser driving her down toward Aelita's hiding place. Jeremie's voice buzzed through the air. "Sissi, be careful—you only have sixty Lifepoints left. If you can't get Aelita to the Tower, you don't have any backup."

"Sometimes, I just wish...I wish we could be like everyone else—not having to remember. There are so many things I want to forget—things that kept us apart. I should have learned by now that we don't get a second chance. No matter what we do, how many times we save the world, we still have to wake up every morning with memories no one else could possibly have. I should have figured it out by now...it doesn't matter what other people think. There's no way they could possibly understand."

Sissi's last two shuriken caught the second crab, sending it into it's explosive death throes as Aelita dove toward the glowing Tower. Aelita floated up to the Tower's apex and entered her handprint.

...AELITA...

"But see, here's the thing...it doesn't matter that they don't. We understand each other—and that's enough."

...CODE...

"No matter what anyone thinks, they can't change one very simple fact..."

...LYOKO...

"I love you, Yumi."

"Daddy, can I see you for a moment?" Sissi poked her head through the Principal's door.

"Hm? What is it, Sissi, dear? I'm very busy."

"Well, I've been thinking, and it's awfully lonely in that dorm room all by myself."

"I don't understand."

"Well, the thing is, Jeremie's been saying lately how lonely he feels in that big room..."

"Really? Well, that's just as well. I'm assigning him a roommate today. A new student named Mike."

"Is that so? Because I was thinking that maybe I could be Jeremie's roommate. You know, keep an eye on him for you?"

"What? Sissi, that's outrageous. We can't allow a boy and a girl to share a room."

Sissi's eyes widened. "Wha...how could you...how dare you think that about your own daughter!"

"What? I didn't..."

Sissi slammed the door, leaving her father stammering.

Ulrich smiled. "You're evil."

Jeremie shook with laughter. "More than that, she's an evil genius."

Sissi grinned. "Just you watch. In about twenty seconds, my father's going to come out and attempt to apoligize by moving me to Jeremie's room and putting Mike in my old room."

"Sissi, precious, I'm sorry about the way I overreacted. You're right, the change might be good for both of you. I've decided I'll move you into Jeremie's room and the new student can have your room. His parent's wanted him to have a private room anyway."

"Thank you, daddy," Sissi turned as her father crept back into his office, "Well, Jeremie, it looks like you have to deal with a roommate after all."

Jeremie chuckled. "I think I can learn to adjust."

Everyone laughed. As Odd chuckled, he caught Sissi's gaze. She smiled. He smiled. Ulrich cleared his throat. "If you'll all excuse me, I'm going to try to get a little breakfast in before physics."

Yumi watched him walk off as Odd and Sissi headed off, joking. Jeremie stepped up behind the girl, placing his hand on her shoulder. "He never left your side, you know."

Yumi flashed back, half-remembered words flashing through her head—and three she remembered prefectly. "I know."

Jeremie walked off in the direction of the library, while Yumi stood, lost in thought. She was still thinking that night as she picked at her spaghetti, her father watching her, concerned. "Yumi, is everything all right?"

Yumi sighed, finally swallowing a bite of the sticky pasta. "Yeah. As a matter of fact, everything's great. Listen, Mom, Dad...I have something to tell you."


End file.
